Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Sketch noting and the library

Technology....it has been mainstreamed into education and can manipulated in ways to accommodate any students needs and the projects they are working on. It is the apogee of innovation of the 20th and 21st century.

One very interesting partnership that combines manual creativity with technology is the art of sketchnoting. What is that, you say? Sketchnoting if a form of notetaking where students are asked to use sketches and creative elements to "write" information. When once there was a time where doodling was considered wasteful, now these doodles and sketches, if directed on the correct path, can lead to better retention of information.

sketchnotes from booktalk

Think about it...when students take notes, they're copying the exact words right off the screen onto a sheet of paper or digitally. It's rote work (remember these iconic words? "Buehler...Buehler...")

But with sketchnoting, a notetaker has to not only listen attentively to what is being said, but also translate that into images and words that reflect the information given. Students are using multiple brain functions to capture information.

So why aren't educators doing this more often? I think there are two simple reasons:

1. No one is teaching them (it's still relatively new)

2. Students WILL push back on the idea (because they don't want to give up Easy Street notetaking)

But with persistence it CAN happen and work well! This summer, I put my skills to the test and brought a one hour sketchnoting presentation to a conference. This was attended not only by teachers, but administrators and students too. It was well-received, and I was equally gratified to know the students sitting in this presentation enjoyed learning the process as well.

In a time when classes are now custom-designed with a rubric of information being taught at specific intervals and modules, sometimes, it's nice to break out and teach something totally new to students. It may not be in the curriculum, but the value of what sketchnoting can do is innumerable.

Here is the presentation I created. It isn't bulky, because it's such a hands-on experience, but look through it and challenge yourself to sketch the examples. Then take it to the classroom!